18 pages • 36-minute read
My Love Sent Me a List
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
"Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare (1604)
Perhaps Shakespeare’s most well-known sonnet, this poem, written for an unnamed lover, argues that the subject of the poem cannot be compared to the beauty of nature. Shakespeare runs through several natural images and presents the negative sides of them. Ultimately, Shakespeare concludes that death can no longer take his love because the poem has immortalized their beauty. This is often considered one of the most beautiful love poems ever composed.
"Sonnet 130" by William Shakespeare (1604)
Unique among Shakespeare’s love sonnets, this poem doesn’t present an idealized image of the subject. Instead, it acts almost as a contrast to “Sonnet 18” because it uses comparisons between the subject and nature to cast what seems like a negative light on the subject. Yet, at the end of the poem, Shakespeare suggests his love for the subject is rare and is not worthy of being expressed in an exaggerated style that was common in poems of his day.
"Sonnet (full-court press)" by Olena Kalytiak Davis (2014)
Another sonnet from the same collection as “My Love Sent Me a List,” this poem better follows the traditional sonnet rhyme scheme, though it is another example of Davis upending the format through unique meter, subject matter, and style. The poem includes an allusion to Shakespeare’s Hamlet as well as a more pronounced feminist subject matter. The diction and syntax of this poem are much more stylized than “My Love Sent Me a List,” but elements of Davis’s style still come through.
Othello by William Shakespeare (1603)
One of Shakespeare’s four major tragedies, this play is about Othello, a Moor who lives in Venice, and his trusted advisor Iago, who despises Othello. Iago, trying to destroy Othello, convinces Othello that his wife, Desdemona, is having an affair with Michael Cassio, one of Othello’s appointed military commanders. Eventually, Othello, in a fit of jealousy, kills Desdemona. When Iago’s plan is revealed to him, Othello kills himself. The play’s main theme is jealousy, and it is unique among Shakespeare’s tragedies because Iago, not Othello, has the most lines and seems to be the focus of the play.
Further Literary Resources
Interview with Olena Kalytiak Davis by Eric Smith (2019)
In this interview with The Sewanee Review, Davis and Smith discuss several sonnets published in the journal’s 2019 spring issue. The interview is short, but it covers some of Davis’s thoughts on poetic inspiration, writing, sonnets, and Shakespeare. Davis talks about her artistic influences, and she mentions how she has utilized Shakespeare in the past. She says she sees her sonnets somewhat like responses to Shakespeare. She also says her focus when writing is to write for “self,” suggesting there is a degree of confessionalism in her writing.
"Author Profile of Olena Kalytiak Davis" by Jeremy Pataky (2017)
In this profile for the Rasmuson Foundation, Pataky offers an image of Davis’s hectic life as a mom, writer, and lawyer. Some of Davis’s high and low artistic influences are listed, and Pataky offers a glimpse into the creative process Davis goes through when writing. Interestingly, Davis discusses the attraction she has to writing in form, saying it offers a challenge and fits her desire for precision in her verse. More than anything, this interview offers detailed images of the somewhat reclusive author.
Women Poets, Feminism and the Sonnet in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: An American Narrative by Jade Craddock (2013)
Craddock’s 2013 Ph.D. dissertation adopts a feminist perspective to analyze the sonnet form in American poetry during the 20th and 21st centuries. Particularly, Craddock is interested in highlighting how female authors over the past 100 years have adopted the style and made it their own. She argues that the sonnet has traditionally been a male-dominated form, but feminism and the women who lived and wrote during the rise of the movement have changed the form and made it their own. This, she argues, should be recognized as an important development in the history of the genre. Though Davis is not the subject of her study, she does discuss some of Davis’s sonnets. Particularly, she makes the point that Davis can be seen as a poet who has radically altered the format for her own feminist purposes.
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